Tim Pawlenty is exiting the race for the White House the same way he came in — on a tidal wave of conventional wisdom. He was too even-tempered, they say, to catch on with a white-hot electorate. He was too level-headed, they say, to connect with a grassroots that’s gone to extremes. He was a nice guy — “boring,” in the parlance of our times — so he finished last. Breaking news: The conventional wisdom is wrong. Pawlenty’s personality problem wasn’t a charisma deficit — it was a wimpiness surplus. But the wimp factor is meaningless relative to the flaw...